Mayor Rahm Emanuel left open the possibility Wednesday of dismantling the city's police oversight agency and acknowledged that racism is a problem within the police force and other City Hall departments.

Emanuel's remarks came shortly before his appointed Police Accountability Task Force released its recommendations for reforming the Chicago Police Department. The mayor was asked about portions of a draft executive summary of the task force's report the Tribune first reported on Tuesday, including a recommendation to put in place a citywide reconciliation process beginning with the "superintendent publicly acknowledging CPD's history of racial disparity and discrimination."

"I don't really think you need a task force to know we have racism in America, we have racism in Illinois or that there is racism that exists in the city of Chicago and obviously can be in our departments," Emanuel said. "The question isn't, 'Do we have racism?' We do. The question is, 'What are you going to do about it?'"

Emanuel then noted that shortly after taking office, he settled a lawsuit from African-American firefighters who argued they had been discriminated against on department entrance exams. The mayor also referenced the City Council's unanimous 50-0 approval of Eddie Johnson as the city's new police superintendent, an African-American who Emanuel noted grew up in the Cabrini-Green public housing project.

During the post-City Council meeting news conference, Emanuel walked the line of arguing progress had been made in some areas while acknowledging much more work had to be done in others.

He repeatedly said that he had yet to be briefed by the task force on its report and had not read its findings, but said he would remain open to any recommendations the panel makes. That would include its call for dismantling the Independent Police Review Authority, the civilian-run agency that investigates allegations of officer misconduct.

"People have to have confidence, whether it's IPRA or whatever the entity is that has oversight as it relates to police disciplinary action. That is an essential component to restoring the trust. It's not the only, but it's an essential ingredient," Emanuel said. "Whether it's IPRA or not, the function needs to be there and that's what we're going to strive and get right in that effort."

Emanuel's acknowledgment of racism inside his Police Department follows a December speech to aldermen in which he acknowledged some Chicago cops use a "code of silence" to cover up the wrongdoing of their colleagues. Last fall, Emanuel stood by his contention that Chicago police officers had become "fetal" out of concern they would get in trouble for actions during arrests, blaming officers second-guessing themselves in the wake of high-profile incidents for rising crime rates in Chicago and elsewhere.

Just before the Police Accountability Task Force released its recommendations for reform in the Chicago Police Department, Mayor Rahm Emanuel acknowledged that racism exists in Chicago, saying, "The question isn't, 'Do we have racism?' We do. The question is, 'What are you going to do about it?'" April 13, 2016. (WGN-TV)

Just before the Police Accountability Task Force released its recommendations for reform in the Chicago Police Department, Mayor Rahm Emanuel acknowledged that racism exists in Chicago, saying, "The question isn't, 'Do we have racism?' We do. The question is, 'What are you going to do about it?'" April 13, 2016. (WGN-TV)

Emanuel made the "fetal" comment during a Washington, D.C., meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch and mayors and police officials nationwide to discuss a spike in homicides and other crime.

"We have allowed our Police Department to get fetal, and it is having a direct consequence. They have pulled back from the ability to interdict ... they don't want to be a news story themselves, they don't want their career ended early, and it's having an impact," Emanuel said, according to the Washington Post.

Emanuel's concerns were aired weeks before the Laquan McDonald police shooting video controversy, which only raised concerns about morale in the department. The Tribune reported officers made 6,818 arrests in January, a drop of more than 3,000 compared with the same month last year. The number of street stops also plummeted, with 9,044 investigative stop reports issued in January, down from 61,330 "contact cards" that police issued during the same month of the previous year.

The mayor established the task force in December after video of McDonald's fatal shooting roiled the city and raised the specter of a federal civil rights investigation, which is ongoing. The mayor announced the task force on the same day he fired then-police Superintendent Garry McCarthy.

"The linkage between racism and CPD did not just bubble up in the aftermath of the release of the McDonald video. Racism and maltreatment at the hands of the police have been consistent complaints from communities of color for decades," the task force's draft report stated. "False arrests, coerced confessions and wrongful convictions are also a part of this history. Lives lost and countless more damaged. These events and others mark a long, sad history of death, false imprisonment, physical and verbal abuse and general discontent about police actions in neighborhoods of color."

Both IPRA and the department's internal affairs bureau don't have adequate resources, lack true independence and are not held accountable for their work, according to the task force. Since 2011, for example, IPRA failed to fully investigate 40 percent of its complaints.

"IPRA is badly broken," the draft report stated. "Almost since its inception, there have been questions about whether the agency performed its work fairly, competently, with rigor and independence. The answer is no. Cases go uninvestigated, the agency lacks resources and IPRA's findings raise troubling concerns about whether it is biased in favor of police officers. Up until recently, the agency has been run by former law enforcement, who allowed leadership to reverse findings without creating any record of the changes. IPRA has lost the trust of the community, which it cannot function without."

Emanuel already has embraced one task force recommendation, announcing in February that he supports releasing videos of police-involved shootings within 60 days of the incidents.

Among the other recommendations in the task force report:

•"Reinvigorate community policing as a core philosophy," while replacing CAPS with a plan for commanders to interact with community stakeholders at the district level.

•Create the post of deputy chief of diversity and inclusion in CPD.

•Create a "smart 911 system" that would allow city residents to pre-enter information on mental-health issues that could assist first-responders who arrive at a particular address or interact with a particular person.

The task force also called for much greater transparency in the Police Department, urging the public release of "incident-level" information on everything from investigatory stops to disciplinary cases. And a new inspector general for public safety could be named to monitor the department and its system for accountability, it said, "including for patterns of racial bias."

It also recommends increased training, as most post-academy instruction is limited to videos played at roll call — a program one officer likened to "day care" because officers spent their time sleeping or looking at their smartphones. The report also states that officers need to be trained to recognize both conscious and unconscious bias during their daily duties, including traffic stops and use of force.